Disclaimer: I don't own 'Stargate: SG-1' or any of the related characters; you should know the drill by now. Also, thanks are due to MaureenT, whose exceptional 'Stargate' fanfics are what first got me interested in the Sam/Daniel pairing originally, to say nothing of the invaluable information and suggestions she has provided for the upcoming chapters
Feedback: I'd appreciate it, believe me
Child of the Ancients
For a moment, Liam looked as close to embarrassed as he had ever been since arriving in the SGC as the various leaders of the Atlantis expedition, accompanied by his parents, stared at him for a few silent moments until McKay finally broke the silence.
"Oh my God…" he said in a low voice, giving the distinct impression that he wanted to hit himself for not realising it earlier. "He's right… just because we've shut down the chamber doesn't mean the bridge still isn't drawing power…"
"And that's bad?" John asked, looking inquiringly at his team scientist.
"Essentially, we've created a dam and we've cut off the only means the water had of draining out," Sam said, recognising McKay's expression as meaning that he was about to launch into a long-winded explanation that she would probably be the only person present capable of understanding. "We're no longer actually using the power ourselves, but because we've left the bridge intact, the energy we're drawing along it is simply building up like a dam without actually doing anything for either side until it reaches a point when…"
She shook her head. "Well, there's no way I can be sure without further investigation, but I think it's safe to say that it wouldn't be good for anyone on our side of the bridge."
"Well, I guess that's it; we're going to have to start it up again," McKay said, shaking his head in frustration.
"Excuse me?" Rod said, turning to look incredulously at his other self. "Did you miss what Colonel Jack- Colonel Carter- was just saying? If you start that thing up-"
"Yes, we'll start causing damage at your end of the bridge; I get that," McKay said, looking back at his other self in frustration. "However, in case you missed what the kid just pointed out- and God, I can't believe I'm saying that-, if we don't do anything, our universe will be the one to suffer the tear, which happens to be your one right now as well; I'm not saying it's fair, but-"
"Before we start debating whose universe has the greater right to live, wouldn't it make more sense to figure out a means of shutting the bridge down?" Daniel cut in, stepping between the two McKays as he looked critically at them both. "If we can create it, surely we can destroy it to stop this from being an issue, right?"
After a moment's silence as the two McKays looked at him, Rod, McKay and Jeannie all turned to look at each other almost simultaneously.
"Overload?" Rod asked.
"Well, it's possible, but the energy requirements-" Jeanie began.
"Again, it's possible; we just need to work out what they are…" McKay concluded, nodding slightly at his sister and his other self before he turned back to look at Sam. "Uh… as long as you're here, could you-?"
"Give you a hand with your calculations?" Sam finished, smiling slightly at the uncomfortable expression on McKay's face (Not that Daniel blamed her; he'd changed a lot since their first meeting, but it was always pleasant to see the man whose 'theory' had nearly led to Teal'c being killed acknowledge that Sam was still better at things than him even before Daniel had allowed himself to acknowledge his feelings for her). "No problem; the sooner we can sort out a solution to this the better."
"Gotta agree with you there, Mom," Liam said, smiling slightly up at his mother. "Still, shouldn't take too long with you on the case; Orlin always said you had a great mind-"
"Hold on; Orlin?" Sam repeated, looking at her son with a sudden renewed interest. "Orlin visited you?"
"Well… just once or twice; Aunt Oma… kind of mentioned me to him and asked him to keep an eye on me when she had other stuff to do…" Liam admitted, looking slightly sheepishly down at the floor before he looked back at his mother. "He didn't visit that often; he just… well, Aunt Oma asked him to teach me a bit of Ascended history so I'd know when not to help, that kind of thing…"
"Sorry, can we get a cast list for those of us who walked in on the middle of this particular story?" Colonel Sheppard asked, looking in confusion- as well as a slight trace of apology; evidently he didn't want to interrupt but was simultaneously curious about what anyone was talking about- between the various members of the Carter/Jackson family. "Who's Orlin?"
"He's… he was an Ancient who we encountered a few years back who'd been exiled to a planet after the people there used a weapon he gave them as a defensive measure to try and conquer other worlds," Sam explained, looking uncomfortably over at Daniel, clearly seeking a reaffirmation of his emotional support when faced with an uncomfortable topic. Even though Sam was listed as Orlin's 'aunt' after they'd been forced to send him to that psychiatric facility when the brain damage caused by his Descension had become 'fatal', she hadn't visited him in almost six months; as much as she recognized Orlin's sacrifice, she always found it awkward to talk to a child version of someone who she'd once shared a… well, if she considered what she and Daniel had shared 'sex' she essentially had to call what she and Orlin had shared a 'relationship'…, even when he didn't remember what they'd once been. "He was allowed to return to the Others after he helped us stop the weapon from falling into the hands of the NID, but before he did, he and I… well…"
"Gotcha," Colonel Sheppard said, nodding briefly in understanding at her before he assumed a more serious expression. "Sorry I sent us down that personal bit of memory lane; any chance we could get back to the 'stop the end of the universe' bit of this evening?"
"Mmm? Oh, sure thing…" McKay said, shaking his head slightly- Daniel noted a briefly frustrated glare McKay shot at Sam for some reason but decided not to question it; right now the situation needed every available scientist if they were going to prevent either their Atlantis or Rod's from being destroyed, and probing McKay for the reason for that glare would accomplish neither goal right now- before he turned to look at his sister and other self. "C'mon, let's go…"
With that, the four scientists walked out of the observation room, already tossing ideas for possible solutions back and forth as they faded out of sight, leaving Daniel and Liam alone in the room with Doctor Weir and Colonel Sheppard.
After a moment's silence, Liam shrugged and looked up at the three adults.
"Shall we get back to breakfast?" he asked, a slightly hopeful smile on his face.
Looking down at the young boy, Doctor Weir smiled back at him.
"Why not?" she said, looking back at Colonel Sheppard and Daniel. "I could use a meal myself; I didn't have time to eat something before Zelenka told me about this latest turn of events."
"Sounds good to me," Colonel Sheppard said, shrugging slightly himself as he glanced back at Daniel. "C'mon, let's go; I'm pretty sure we've still got a few interesting stories to share about life through the 'gate before our resident geniuses save the day once more."
"You're that certain they can pull it off?" Daniel asked as they began to walk back towards the main dining area. "I mean, I trust that Sam can find something, but as for Doctor McKay…"
"Well, as I told Colonel Mitchell during your last trip here, McKay's pretty good when faced with the threat of impending death; he pretty much thrives in a situation like this," Colonel Sheppard said, a slight smirk on his face as they began to walk back down the stairs towards the dining area. "Trust me; he might not like being stuck in situations like this, but it's the only way you can really guarantee to get results from him…"
A few hours later, Daniel and Liam having spent most of it walking, eating and talking with Colonel Sheppard and Doctor Weir- with all available resources having been diverted to assist the McKays in their research, there really weren't that much left for Elizabeth to do right now, thus allowing her at least a couple of hours to spare for leisure-, the three McKays and Sam finally contacted them with news of what they'd discovered about the current problem.
"Overload the bridge?" Colonel Sheppard said, looking somewhat sceptically at McKay as he sat around the conference room with Daniel, Liam and Doctor Weir, all four of them looking questioningly at the four scientists. "I thought this thing was designed to draw power?"
"Well, it's a bit more complicated than that, but we've really been a bit pushed for time," McKay said, looking somewhat uncomfortably at the group of people around them, clearly trying to give the impression that whatever solution they'd come up with wasn't something they'd have chosen if they'd had more time. "Unfortunately, we received a transmission from Rod's universe- we still can't communicate with them, unfortunately- which mentioned that they have a solution to the problem at their end which would essentially stick us with the problem by flooding the exotic particles that had already been created on their side into our space-time all at once…"
"The consequence of that are something we can't be certain of, of course," Sam added, looking around the room as she spoke up herself, "but from everything we can determine using the available data, the resulting tear would eventually swallow up the entire galaxy, possibly expanding to consume the universe itself."
"So… very bad thing to let happen, huh?" Colonel Sheppard asked, the solemn expression on his face the only thing that made it clear he understood the severity of the crisis they now faced.
"To say the least," Sam added, before she continued her explanation. "Fortunately, their plan will take six hours to implement, but we've already got an idea at this point to beat them to it; actually, Daniel's the one who inspired it."
"Really?" Daniel asked, looking over at Sam in surprise. "What did I do?"
"Your comment about destroying the bridge managed to get us thinking," Sam explained, smiling slightly affectionately at him before she turned back to address the other two adults sitting around the table. "Anyway, Jeanie came up with our final plan."
"Basically," Jeanie said, taking up the explanation herself, "we think we can collapse the bridge by essentially 'overloading' it with a massive burst of energy from this side."
"Thus stopping the creation of exotic particles on the other side into the bargain," Rod added, smiling around the table.
"How massive a burst are we talking about here?" Colonel Sheppard asked, looking sceptically around at the four scientists (Jeanie might not have been officially qualified but she still counted as a scientist after all the work she'd put into this project).
"Everything we've got," McKay said, looking around the room with a solemn expression on his face. "I mean, enough to severely deplete our ZedPM."
Elizabeth sighed.
"So instead of creating a powerful new energy source, we'll be sacrificing the one we already have," she said, her voice equally solemn as she looked at the group.
"Well, on the bright side, we caught it early enough that we should be able to retain at least some power if we trigger the burst now- since the bridge hasn't been active for relatively long it won't be as 'used' to transferring this kind of power as it might be-, but… yeah, it will be a lot lower after this," McKay admitted, clearly trying to find any kind of bright spot in this latest turn of events. "I wouldn't want to be here if the Wraith showed up for any length of time, of course, but if we time it fast enough we might still manage to shut down the bridge before it becomes too difficult…"
After a moment's silence, Elizabeth nodded.
"All right," she said simply. "Do it."
With that, the scientists turned around and headed back towards the lab containing the containment chamber, leaving the other four people in the room to look anxiously at each other and cross their fingers.
Here goes nothing… Daniel reflected as he looked after Sam's retreating form, hoping that she would succeed in this latest experiment.
"Doctor Weir gave the OK for this?" Zelenka asked, looking incredulously at McKay after taking a brief look over Jeanie's notes; the four scientists hadn't had much time to explain the current situation beyond that they had a plan for shutting down the bridge for good after arriving, but the Czech scientist had already taken a look at their current calculations.
"You'd rather the universe was destroyed?" McKay asked, looking up slightly from his work as he tapped away at his laptop, the three McKays going over the required calculations while Colonel Carter checked out their work to act as an at-least-somewhat-impartial observer to make sure nobody missed anything. McKay was so focused on his work he barely registered Zelenka's muttered response to his last comment, only for his attention to be drawn back to full awareness when Rod walked past him while tapping away at a small handheld computer.
"Look," Rod said, after McKay had joined him in one corner of the lab, Colonel Carter moving into position to take over checking over McKay's equations (Clearly Rod had finished his if he felt comfortable doing something like this), "the Daedalus is still in orbit; I thought-"
"I know what you're going to say," McKay cut in, prompting a brief silence between the two men before Rod continued.
"If I can beam into the energy stream protected by my personal forcefield…" he said, his voice trailing off slightly to allow McKay to finish his line of reasoning.
"You'd be transported back to your universe, I know," McKay confirmed with a brief nod. "I didn't bring it up before because, if it doesn't work…"
"I'm willing to take that risk," Rod replied, nodding slightly at his other self. "After all, you heard Colonel Carter; I've only got a few days at best before I can't stay here, so it's best I just try and leave now. I've already requested the Daedalus to execute the transport to the coordinates inside the chamber on your mark."
After a moment's silence, McKay sighed.
"You're sure about this?" he asked. "I mean, everyone loves you here…"
"Maybe, but it's not home," Rod replied, a slight smile on his face. "I mean, my Sheppard may be a know-it-all, my Teyla's hard to talk to, my Ronon is ... well, actually those two are pretty similar," he admitted, shrugging slightly and sharing a brief smile with his counterpart before continuing, "but, in the end, for all their faults… they're my team. My place is with them, in that world where Colonel Jackson has kids, Professor Jackson taught at university, where… well, y'know, all that stuff…"
He smiled back at his other self once again, a casual smile still on his face. "Besides, this world doesn't need another McKay; it's already got one."
"It's just the lesser model, hmm?" McKay countered, allowing that slight hostility he'd been nurturing towards his other self since the beginning to slip through at last; he knew it was petty, but in the end this guy did seem to have everything he didn't…
Rod just smiled back at him.
"I envy you," he said, his expression betraying no hint of the irony or condescending attitude that McKay would have expected to accompany that statement. "ou say exactly what's on your mind no matter how it makes you look. I can only imagine the freedom you must have, not caring if people like you or not."
"Oh," McKay said, uncertain how to feel about that last statement before it fully registered in his mind. "People don't like me?"
"Trust me," Rod said, ignoring that last query as he patted his other self on the shoulder, "you've got it great here."
With that, he turned his attention to the small hand-held computer he had in his hand. "Now, I've made some calculations; when the readings reach the levels I've indicated, you'll know whether or not I made it home."
"Oh," McKay said again as he took the computer, looking back at his other self with an uncertain smile of his own. "I guess you just need to… click your heels together, huh?"
"Good luck, Rodney," Rod said, holding out his hand.
"You too," McKay said, taking the offered hand only to be slightly phased when Rod used a street shake before he walked away, briefly saying something to Zelenka in Czech that McKy couldn't quite make out before walking out from behind the console to face Jeanie, a concerned look on her face as she stood in front of Rod before the two shared a brief hug, followed by Rod turning to smile slightly at Colonel Carter.
"You are going to give him a chance, right?" Rod asked, a slightly inquiring smile on his face as he looked at her.
"I already am," Colonel Carter replied simply; whether she just naturally knew what Rod was talking about or this was the result of some previous discussion McKay had missed he didn't know and wasn't sure how to find out without sounding stupid.
"Good," Rod replied, his smile becoming broader. "Because I've got to say, from what I've seen back home, you two make each other very happy."
With that, Rod walked over to another console, tapping a few switches before he activated a radio link.
"Hermiod, ready when you are," he said, before terminating the link and smiling around at the others in the room. "I guess there's nothing left to say but, 'There's no place like home'."
With that, the transporter whisked him away in its traditional burst of white light, leaving the rest of the people in the room to turn their attention back to the relevant consoles in preparation for their next attempt.
"All right, everything's in the green," Colonel Carter said, looking up as McKay and Jeanie gathered around the control console. "We're ready to begin forced power output."
"Right," McKay said, nodding briefly at her before he turned to Jeanie. "Uh… you want to… press the button?"
After a moment's brief stunned silence, Jeanie smiled back at her brother.
"Sure," she said, grinning as she turned to press the button, the two McKay siblings hurrying over to different consoles as the containment generator began to charge up, the yellow light of the energy gathered so far growing ever brighter in its centre as it gathered energy.
"Power is at full," Zelenka said.
"It's working!" Jeanie called back to the others from where she was monitoring the rate of the energy's transference into the bridge; she could almost see the bridge beginning to come apart as more energy than it could be expected to cope with at this stage 'flowed' over it, barely even registering McKay issuing the order to begin transport as the energy continued to flow over it.
"The bridge is destabilising!" Colonel Carter put in, looking up at the room with a smile.
"It's getting there; we just need more power…" Zelenka said, looking anxiously up at McKay.
"ZedPM is at fifty percent," McKay said, his eyes fixed on the readouts; with the energy on the bridge dissipating so rapidly, Rod's chances of getting through were better than if they'd done this later- the energy would have interfered with the signal at a normal transference rate, so the more energy on the 'bridge' the slower the signal would have been to make sure Rod reached the other end intact-, but that didn't mean McKay wanted to risk it cutting off too soon.
"It's still not enough, Rodney!" Zelenka called over to him.
"We have to max it out!" Jeanie yelled over at him.
"Thirty percent!" McKay added, his eyes fixed on the readings before him, further calculations running through his brain…
"The bridge is collapsing!" Jeanie yelled over at him.
"He's through!" McKay said at almost the same time. Instantly, Zelenka terminated the energy burst, leaving a reading of 20% power on the monitors as the various scientists looked around at each other.
Finally, Colonel Carter broke the silence.
"Nice work, McKay," she said, nodding at him with a slight smile on her face. "From what I've seen of the readings, it looks like he got through; you did a good job."
McKay shrugged. "Eh, I felt I owed him a shot," he said simply. "Besides, in the end I would've done the same thing for… me."
A few hours later, as Sam sat silently in her quarters- having decided to go to bed earlier after the sudden stress involved in today's work-, she looked up at the sound of a polite knocking to find Daniel standing at the door, looking curiously at her.
"Hi," he said as he walked into the room, correctly interpreting her brief nod as approval. "How are you?"
"Oh… just a bit tired; nothing major, really," Sam said, nodding reassuringly at him as she sat up. "Jeanie Miller's just packing to get ready for her return to Earth, and the last I heard McKay's trying to make sure everyone understands that he had to drain the ZPM as much as he did or we wouldn't even be here to complain about the power loss…"
Daniel smiled.
"Good to know some things never change at least, isn't it?" he said, each of them clearly remembering the McKay they'd met or heard about during his original trip to the SGC; he might have significantly improved as a person since those days, but in some ways it was comforting to know that some people would always remain the same no matter what they experienced when they went through the Stargate.
"Yeah… in a way," Sam replied, smiling slightly at him before she assumed a more curious expression. "Where's Liam?"
"Oh, he's just settling into his room a little bit down the corridor; I just thought I'd… see… how you were after… well, after all that," Daniel said, smiling slightly awkwardly at Sam (She supposed it was only to be expected; this was the first time that they'd been alone since arriving in Atlantis, and neither of them were still entirely certain how far they wanted to take… things).
"Oh… I'm fine," Sam replied, nodding reassuring at him. "It was a bit… strange having two Rodney McKays, of course, but at least Rod was pleasant enough, and we did manage to save the universe."
"Just another day at the office, huh?" Daniel said, allowing himself another smile as he looked at her.
"Yeah, pretty much," Sam said, smiling herself as she looked at Daniel. "Almost hard to believe at times, isn't it?"
"Yeah…" Daniel said, his voice trailing off at that as the two of them looked at each other.
The truth was, while they might have normally been able to get away with the comment that their job at the SGC was essentially just like any other job- they just travelled a lot more than they might have done in other avenues of employment- there were always those missions that made it clear that what they did wasn't just a 'job'; the fact that they now had a son who was physically at least twice his chronological age and possessed at least a degree of the power and knowledge available to Ascended beings made that perfectly clear.
After a moment's silence, Daniel stood up.
"Well, I'd better get some sleep," he said, looking slightly apologetically at Sam. "We've got a lot to do tomorrow; Liam and I were going to see about trying out that password on the tablet Daanar gave us in the holographic information room…"
"Just checking the computers didn't reveal anything, then?" Sam asked.
"Not a thing," Daniel replied, shaking his head in response. "Whatever Merlin created, if he did leave the plans here he probably encoded them to make them as difficult to access as possible; the computer consoles can at least be used by anybody, but the information in the hologram room needs someone with the Ancient gene to at least turn it on…"
"Which makes it more secure from anyone attempting to use that system to find whatever Merlin left there, right?" Sam finished, nodding in understanding. "Well, I guess all we can do now is wait and see, right?"
"Yeah," Daniel said, nodding back at her before he indicated the door. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow…"
Before Daniel could turn around to leave, Sam, acting on impulse, stood up from her bed, leaned in, and kissed Daniel directly on the mouth.
The second their lips made contact, both of them knew that this wasn't going to be a chase kiss; like their kiss in Daniel's house the day before they were sent to rendezvous with the Odyssey, one minute their lips had met and then, in a blur of limbs and clothes and skin, they found themselves lying on top of Sam's bed, kissing hungrily, Daniel already moving to undo Sam's jacket as Sam's fingers moved to do the same to him, his lips already moving down her neck towards her chest…
The realisation of what they were about to do- particularly when compared to what both of them had intended when they originally started to part company for the night- prompted both of them to quickly stop what they were doing, Daniel part-'rolling' off the bed and rapidly getting to his feet, leaving Sam lying on the bed with her shirt and jacket half-undone, staring up at him as she panted slightly to regain her lost breath.
"Wow," she said, staring back at him with a slightly dazed, yet shocked, expression. "That… that was…"
"Yeah," Daniel said, stepping back and trying not to look directly at Sam without appearing rude as he closed his jacket once more. "I think I should go, Sam, because… because I really don't want to."
Sam simply nodded in understanding.
No matter how much she and Daniel might want to take that last step in their relationship, the timing just wasn't right at the moment, not with their need to find Merlin's plans having to take precedence over everything else.
Mentally, she and Daniel were definitely ready to take the final step.
Emotionally, however…
After the way things had been between them over the last year, they'd prefer a little more time to get used to this new turn in their relationship before they got on to that part of the equation.
As Daniel walked out of the room and the door closed behind him, however, Sam was already wondering how cold the showers here could get…
AN: Well, that's "McKay and Mrs Miller" over with a relatively less significant impact- they at least still have some energy in their last ZPM, even if it's only a fifth of what it COULD hold-; next chapter we move on to the moment when we learn just what Merlin hid here all those centuries ago, and how the SGC can use it against them…
